1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique in which a microblogging function provided by a service providing server is used by communicating with the server via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there are services that provide a microblogging function as a communication tool. This microblogging function is a type of blog function by which a user holding an account posts short messages called “microposts” as “messages” or “comments” to the service. Here the user may include, for example, an image forming apparatus itself, a linking service, an object on a cloud service or an application, and is not limited to an actual user (human). A unique identifier is assigned to each “message” and “comment” that a user posts or transmits. In the microblogging function, communication is carried out via a “timeline” and “following”. Here the “timeline” is a user specific Web page that registers, displays and manages, as a list, “comments” related to a registered “message”, when a user registers a “message”. Here, the user that registered the “message” and other users perform communication by exchanging information by registering information related to the message as “comments” on the “timeline”.
Also, “following” is registering with another user so as to be able to display on one's own Web page a message posted by the other user.
Amongst CRM (Customer Relationship Management) services provided as cloud services, there are examples in which a microblogging function to be used as a communication tool during work is provided. In these cloud services, client information, business discussion information, etcetera are linked to messages in order to further improve the user's convenience of use. Furthermore, at the same time, in CRM services, file sharing functions are provided in which files are shared between users, wherein the files can be saved, edited, updated, and referenced. An example of this is Chatter provided by Salesforce.com as a microblogging function. Document, File, and the like are examples of file sharing functions.
Moreover, there are times when a user requests a print, but forgets to go to take the printed sheets. In order to solve such a problem, a technique in which identification information that specifies a print job is embedded in printed sheets, and it is determined whether anyone came to take a printed sheet by reading the identification information with an identification detection unit. A user that dispatched a print job is notified by an e-mail of having forgotten to take the sheet (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-195845). However, because there is no guarantee that the user that dispatched the print job is constantly checking his or her mail, there is no guarantee with the conventional technique that the user will definitely notice that taking the sheets was forgotten.
Also, in a case where after receiving the mail, the user received many other e-mails, it is possible that the user might forget about the e-mail that notified that taking the sheet was forgotten. There is a technique in which a print job requested by a user is only executed, and printed on a printer, when the user performs authentication on the printer. In this kind of case, a situation in which the user that dispatched a print job forgets to take the printed sheet becomes is less likely to occur. However, the user may get distracted by other things after dispatching the print job and forget that he or she dispatched the print job, and the printing for the print job will not be performed.